Sunday, November 16, 2008 posted at 10:15 AM • Exciting news- on my domestic flight going Bangkok- Phuket, the Amazing Race contestents caught the same flight. And as I expected it's all a shame. Camera crews set up and take multiple shots of them running to the ticket counter, and then they got off the plane and ran down the stairs, only to get held up by customs. Stupid f'cking Americans.Ahh they were wankers. They yelled at the Air stewardess because their large cameras didn't fit in the overhead lockers, they walked around the plane the whole flight to be sure no one was filming them and they were the biggest bunch of knobs.But hey what do you really expect from American reality shows??

follow up thanks to peach: • And I must admit it wasnt so much the contestants who were jerks, more the production crew. I spoke to one of the contestants, an asian looking man with his girlfriend. confirmed as Victor & TammyNice guy.Also two older men. confirmed as Mel & MikeThe camera guys and production bothered me though, they seemed very pretentious, roaming around the plane like they owned it. As an Australian I do not appreciate this, as i believe everyone is the same, regardless of their fame, wealth, etc.They all had a picture of a monkey and were looking for that.our flight details were:15/novBangkok- phuketthai airwaysflight TG203- 0730Sorry no pictures the camera crew acted like body guards.Yes they did do multiple takes, one funny incedent was when we arrived all the teams ran, just to be held up by crowds and customs..that made me laugh.hope this helps,

Another Blog/News posted on Nov 15• Two contestants in a TV production being filmed by foreigners in Phuket are on the verge of collapse after taking turns pulling each other around Phuket City as they raced against the clock in the midday heat.PHUKET: At least four pairs of contestants taking part in a travel documentary are racing around Phuket using various forms of transport today.One of the challenges that faced the contestants was to pull each other through Phuket City in the midday heat using rickshaws as they searched for “King Rama V Park”.The contestants pictured here made “four wrong turns” and held up traffic while a camera man and a sound engineer followed them in a songtaew (wooden bus with benches). A policeman on a motorcycle also followed the contestants and crew to “ensure their safety”. The policeman told the reporter that even though he could easily have told them how to get to the park, he had been ordered not to give directions to the contestants.The reporter caught up with production crew members at the park, but despite holding up traffic and creating quite a spectacle with brightly decorated rickshaws being pulled by very hot and stressed-looking farangs, they refused to make any comment on what they were doing, except to say that they were making a “random travel documentary”.

<< Margie

Our very own TAR Detective Neobie does some amazing detective work around Phuket:

post and photos here• students, road sweepers... My three-day-old Thai wasn't very helpful, but this is what I found out:Only about 5% of the conversations were in English, so there might have been quite some miscommunication...According to the gardeners, a group arrived in the park at about 4pm. Production in the park went on for about two hours, until about 6pm. They gave me the *running motion* *around the lake motion*. Appearing frequently in the conversation was the English word "exercise".A cyclist told me that production spent time in the Fitness Center - a tiny indoor public gym on the north side of the park. Normal opening hours are 6am to 9.30am and then 5pm to 8.30pm (for the working class), so there might have been an Hours of Operation. The guy who opened the shutters at 5pm couldn't, or wouldn't, communicate anything about what happened.The Phuket Gazette photo was taken next to a police booth. Nothing from them. The shops along the road outside the park mostly don't know anything, and even those who said they knew, I think those were false positives. (My fault, my Thai sucks.)I have absolutely no idea what they could have done in that gym. It's just weights machines and stuff. There were photos of a muay thai event on the notice board though, but it looked like a different location. Heading all the way to Phuket, to lift weights??Oh, by the way? Teams trying to get to "Rama Nine Park" will not get ANYTHING out of the locals. They know it as Seum Luang, and even then it's pronounced quite differently than the way we would...Your foreign correspondent Neobie, reporting from Phuket.

• You know how astronomers find new stars by looking where there's a blank spot in the night sky? Yeah that's kind of the way it is with TAR.Popped by the Phuket Zoo, and the staff there were very reluctant about saying anything to do with filming! There were some pretty lame excuses ("Oh there are many people." "Oh I forget."), so I can pretty much confirm that this is one of our racers' locations!Which, sad to say, kind of means a monkey show is slated to appear on our TV screens soon.

• Alright one last bit from the streets of Phuket:

Met a group of elderly gentlemen in Rama IX Park who spoke Cantonese, and they told me that something had been going on along Thanon Thalang, in the historic core of town. And... that happens to be exactly where my hotel is!So for two days I've been walking up and down the streets in the district, drawing pictures of boxes and envelopes... You get the picture! And yes, apart from the "sightings" of a certain Leonardo DiCaprio filming The Beach a couple of years back, there's TAR news!At about 1-3pm on 15 November, various shopkeepers in the district saw farangs pulling rickshaws around the street. A shop on the western end of Th Thalang suggested that they might have started on Soi Romani (a little alley running off the north side of the street). However, shops on the alley know nothing about TAR filming, instead pointing me to another production there on the 27th. A traffic warden I talked to on Th Krabi told me about Wat Phuttha Mongkhon Nimit on the north end of Soi Romani (followed by communication breakdown), so I'm not sure if he was talking about TAR or rickshaws in general. No rickshaws when I went to the temple though.Other sightings, that when plotted on a map, give a good sense of where teams would have gone:East along Th Dibuk, between Soi Romani and Th PhuketSouth along Th Phuket, between Th Dibuk and Th ThalangWest along Th Thalang, between Th Phuket and Th YaowaratThe sightings then disappear. I'm really not sure how they made their way to Rama IX Park from there. Two shops also suggested the Thai-Chinese Museum on the north side of Th Krabi as a *Thai lost in translation*, but I didn't understand the significance. Staff there genuinely didn't seem to know much.Somewhere in one of these conversations there was a mention of a woman pulling a man; but the man was "holding a camera", so I'm not sure what that means. There was also mention of a police escort going in front of the teams, about two or three motorcycles.There remains one single hotspot that I have yet to talk about. Everyone within a 50m radius pointed me to a Chinese herbal shop on the south side of Th Thalang, touting itself to be the "Oldest Herbal Shop in Phuket". Another communication breakdown there (real or feigned), but there's one thing that made me very sure that TAR was here.Coming right up with photos!

I'm reasonably certain they're entering Rama IX park off of Chao Fah road; there's no Rama V park in Phuket that I could find. Compare the plants and the orange/rattan looking building in the background to this.

TEAMS TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE WHEN THEY RECEIVE A FOOT MASSAGE FROM A LOCAL ELEPHANT, AND THE EXTREME HEAT OF THAILAND CAUSES ONE RACER TO COLLAPSE, ON "THE AMAZING RACE," MARCH 29 "Gorilla? Gorilla?? Gorilla???" (Thailand) -

-The teams travel from India to Thailand on the seventh leg of the race

-Once there, they pose with a tiger and receive foot massages from an elephantTeams take a walk on the wild side…or rather, the wild side walks on them

-One team finds that time is not of the essence when a shopkeeper hinders their movement, One team finds itself at the mercy of a slow moving Thai shopkeeper.

-A first place team finds itself in the penalty box—and their victory in jeopardyand others discover that a hurried pace doesn't always equal victory, particularly when mistakes can add up to penalties

-The region's extreme heat causes one racer to collapse at the pit stopand in the extreme temperature of Thailand, one racer collapses from exhaustion.

Is the gorilla an uneducated guess by our racers looking at the photo in the first clue?

OOH! Just noticed something in the photo that tells us without a doubt which team it is! (Look closely!)

We know the racers have a picture of a "monkey" to look for...

And we already know this is Luke and Margie, but would love to know what you see...

Logged

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

Searching for monkeys and gorillas in Phuket turns up these guys. I think it was "the mean blogger" who called it a "picture of a monkey" - but the title says Gorilla?.The orangutan is a popular character at the Phuket Zoo - there must be a thousand pictures of him in Flickr.

I don't think we have any evidence of them going to Patong, but they seem to have a few interesting gorillas there.

Because I do have some reason to believe that we may possibly see racers at Patong Beach....

Logged

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

Good thing about TAR:A casting mactors? You see Paula at every street corner in Thailand.

The bad thing? Travelling to the Philippines and...

Is the gorilla an uneducated guess by our racers looking at the photo in the first clue?

OOH! Just noticed something in the photo that tells us without a doubt which team it is! (Look closely!)

hey Neobie! I'm from the Philippines and we don't really see "them" in every corner of the streets here, heck, they're not even THAT famous! After they made everyone hate them (Gosh, I hate them too during the race, 8 first place wins?!? WTF). But what's ironic is that Paula's hitting the shores of the Philippines with advertisements too!

Anyway, back to the real topic,

Could this be related to the "picture" the teams are searching for as they land in Phuket? I really think Jodi/Christie survives the next leg and probably one of them saying this title.but its just a gut feel...

OOH! Just noticed something in the photo that tells us without a doubt which team it is! (Look closely!)

Well the only thing I can pick out is the sneakers. They are the same sneakers that Margie/Luke have been wearing during the race. I am sure your eagle eye has found something else. So spill the beans.....lol

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

Soi Romani (Romani Lane) (1st, 2nd photos; parking lot on right hand side of 2nd photo)Possible start of rickshaw task, as suggested by witness at D. It's a narrow lane, with a smallish parking lot at the south end.

Thanks. To give an idea, I've started at the herbal shop here; zoom in on the avatar below to see the street map, and "drive" using the arrow keys. The temple, alley, and Rama park are covered, but I can't see the museum.